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From Faith to Faith

Romans 1:17-17

You know how some sermons are just easy to listen to?

Maybe they hit on a subject you were just wondering about,

or they address a need you felt but hadn’t put a name to,

or they re-affirm something you believed, but didn’t have the words for.

Some sermons just seem to hit us right where we are,

at just the right time with just the right words.

I love it when that happens.

That probably isn’t going to happen this evening.

This is our third sermon on faith, in our 3 on 3 series.

For the last two weeks we have talked about what Faith is

and What happens to our faith, when the worst happens.

Both of those sermons were nice and neat little packages.

You could hear them and go away thinking about How great God is,

and how much He loves you.

But sermons are not always like that.

I guess what I’m saying, is that you’ll have to work a little harder than you usually would

to connect with the message this evening.

But you know how sometimes, when you really dread getting into something,

like a project at work, or a homework assignment, or a chore at home,

how right in the middle of it you think to yourself,

“You know, this isn’t so bad.”

I love it when that happens, too.

And I pray that will happen this evening.

I want to spend our time together, looking at what the Bible has to say, about what we need to do to have victorious faith.

Paul writes in Romans 1:17 (NRSV) “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, "The one who is righteous will live by faith."

Now all of us know something of the value of faith,

and we know what the Bible says about it.

As a life time member of the church,

we have had these verses burned into our consciences.

Hebrews 11:6: “Without faith it is impossible to please God

Mark 11:22: “Have faith in God.”

Mark 9:23: “All things are possible to him that believes.”

Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen..”

The problem has never been the value of faith.

It’s the acquisition of faith, that we struggle with.

Every Christian that I have ever known, has longed to have more faith,

but didn’t know how to get it?

And thus the struggle.

Have you ever wanted to live by faith, like those we read about in Hebrews 11?

Have you ever said to yourself, “I wish I had more faith, because I know that I would be a better person. Or, if my faith was only stronger, then I would struggle so much.”

I want to start today by telling you that you are not alone.

Every Christian wants to have more, or a stronger faith.

And I believe, in our text today, Paul tells us how to open the door to a greater faith.
“the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith”

The first faith, speaks of that which is primary.

The faith that caused you to act.

To call out to God, and allow Him to take control of your life,

when you submitted to Him in the watery grave of baptism.

The second faith is that power-giving faith.

The faith that calls us to action.

The faith that causes us to read about the giants of faith in Hebrews 11,

and live that type of life, and have that type of relationship with God.

The first faith saves us; the second one identifies us.

The first faith is all about assurance; the second tells us what we can become.

The first faith deals with redemption; the second deals with risk.

The first faith is a gift; the second is all about growth.

I told you that this sermon will be a little harder.

And the reason I say that, is because today I want to look at 5 things

that we have got to do, to get from faith to faith.

You know it’s one thing to sit on the couch with a bag of Cheetos

and think, man I have got to start exercising.

It’s a lot harder to close that bag up, and get up and do something about it.

We don’t always see where God is leading us, sometimes we only have part of the picture.

But faith, is when we continue to trust God’s heart,

even when we cannot see the whole picture.

We all remember those connect the dots books for kids.

A page is covered with dots that don’t seem to make any sense.

To see the picture, you have to connect the dots in the right order.

This evening I am asking you, too get up off the couch,

put the cheetos away, and get ready to connect the dots.

And I know, that if we will follow the dots,

we will be able to see how God wants us to get from Faith to Faith.

1. Believe that your faith can grow!

You know every dream, every invention, every great discovery, and every great accomplishment, all begins with the belief that it can be done.

And not only great accomplishments,

but learning to swim, learning how to ride a bike, learning how to skate.

They all started with the belief, that we could do it.

The same is true with our faith.

There are so many of us in the church that feel stuck.

We struggle and fight with our faith.

We have given in to the same temptations over and over.

We see no growth in our lives,

so we get frustrated, and throw our hands up.

Why even try!

I believe that everyone in this room that has ever felt that way, all felt that way for the same reason.

We don’t believe that we will ever get better.

In Matthew 14:25-33, we see the wonderful story of Peter walking on the water with Jesus.

All to often we tend to look at this story, and talk about Peter’s failure,

and forget that there were two men walking on that water.

Jesus and Peter!

Sure Peter didn’t walk for long, but he did walk.

Maybe 4 steps, maybe 40 steps, but the fact is, that he did walk.

It was his belief, that got him out of the boat to begin with.

And it’s only our belief, our confidence in God that we can do it,

that will move us from faith to victorious faith.

A second way to have a powerful faith is to…

2. Associate with others who have great faith.

In 1 Corinthians 15:33, we have what many have called “The Goat Principle.”

Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."

The principle goes like this, if you run with the goats you will smell like the goats!

But it works both ways.

Romans 1:12 (NCV)

12 I mean that I want us to help each other with the faith we have. Your faith will help me, and my faith will help you.

1 Thessalonians 3:2 (NIV)

2 We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God's fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith,

Too often good circumstances, and bad friends, equal problems.

In the same way, bad circumstances, and good friends, equal victory!

It often takes us a while to figure this out.

A wise Bible professor once said,

“People we associate with are like elevator buttons—they can take you up or down!”

When we are young, we tend to think that is rather funny, and not realistic.

As we get older, we realize that our faith has been enlarged,

to a great extent by the example of others.

By observing how they handled the adversity and the challenges that life brings.

Faith rubs off.

When I was diagnosed with cancer, there was a lot of fear.

What was going to happen?

How in the world were we going to deal with this?

How would the kids, and my parents, no less Pat, deal with this?

Then we turned it over to God and His people,

and fear was replaced with optimism and hope.

When I had surgery, many of you will remember,

that the waiting room was full of people supporting Pat and the family.

Pat, the kids, my parents, knew they were not in the struggle alone.

They were surrounded by people of faith, who loved God and his children.

The faith that sustained my family that day,

was not so much our faith,

but the faith of those we associated with.

Spending time with people of faith, helps us to have a victorious faith.

3. Read and embrace God’s Word.

Some years ago, a young man looking for work, approached a foreman of a logging crew and asked him for a job.

“It depends,” replied the foreman. “Let’s see you take this one down.”

The young man stepped forward and skillfully felled a great tree.

The foreman was impressed and exclaimed, “You can start on Monday!”

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday rolled by.

Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said,

“You can pick up your paycheck on the way out today.”

Startled, the young man asked, “I thought you paid on Fridays.”

“Normally we do,” answered the foreman, “but we’re letting you go today because you’ve fallen behind. Our daily charts show that you’ve dropped from first place on Monday to last place on Wednesday.”

“But I’m a hard worker,” the young man objected. “I arrive first, leave last, and I’ve even worked through my coffee breaks!”

The foreman, sensing the boy’s integrity, thought for a minute and then asked, “Have you been sharpening your ax?”

The young man replied, “Well, no, sir. I’ve been working too hard to take the time.”

Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 10:10 (NLT) Using a dull ax requires great strength, so sharpen the blade. That’s the value of wisdom; it helps you succeed.

It’s told that the great preacher D.L. Moody said, “I prayed for faith and thought that some day it would come down and strike me like lightning. But faith didn’t seem to come. One day I read in Romans that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” I had up to this time, closed my Bible and prayed for faith. Now I opened my Bible and began to study and faith has been growing ever since.”

If our faith is to be victorious , it must be a faith based in God’s Word.

4. Practice prayer and fasting

What? Did he just say what I think he just said?

Now I am pretty sure, that this is the first time that you have ever heard

that we should fast from this pulpit.

It’s kind of like the Holy Spirit, we don’t know an awful lot about him,

so we just move on to other areas of Christianity.

But I believe that this is just as important.

Remember the man in Matthew 17, who came to the disciples and asked them for help for his demon possessed boy?

He asked the disciples to pray for him.

They prayed and nothing happened.

Then Jesus prayed and something did happen—a miracle!

The disciples got discouraged and said,

“Lord, why is it when we prayed for him that nothing happened?”

And the Lord answered, “It was because of you little faith.”

Then He talked to them about faith being the size of a mustard seed and how much growth potential it had.

Referring to the boy who was possessed, Jesus said, “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

In other words, there are some problems, which are so immense,

that we must be totally immersed in prayer and fasting.

Believing God to give that for which we pray.

Great problems demand great faith!

I believe that fasting is a lost art.

But it must be important, since Jesus teaches about it on 5 different occasions,

and even participated in it.

Fasting is a time where I put my wants and needs to the side, so that I can put God first.

You can spend as much time in prayer and fasting as you need,

but it must be a time, where you are putting your wants, and needs aside

and give your attention totally to God.

Whether you fast for one meal, or a day, or even a month,

you dedicate that time, that you would use to nourish your body,

by spending time with God in prayer, study of the scripture, and meditation.

Spending extra time with God, develops victorious faith in our life.

5. Finally we must Remember past victories.

So often, we get consumed with what is going on in the now, that we forget about how faithful God has been in the past.

And I don’t mean the Biblical past, but your past.

Joshua 4:2-7 (NIV) "Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight." 4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."

God encouraged the Children of Israel, to build a reminder, of how Faithful He had been to them.

In 1 Samuel 17, David found that remembering his past successes with God, increased his faith for greater challenge.

He told King Saul, that the giant Goliath was no problem,

based on his victories over a lion and a bear.

I challenge you, take some time to write down all the answers to prayer, you have experienced personally.

All the victories over sin, temptation, trials, sickness—whatever,

and then say to yourself, “God and I did it before; we can do it again!”

Remembering how God has worked in your life before,

and know that He is still at work in your life today.

If we believe,

If we associate with others of faith,

If we embrace God’s Word,

If spend extra time with God,

If we remember our past victories,

We can go from Faith to Victorious Faith!